US7321263B2 - Class E power amplifier circuit and associated transmitter circuits - Google Patents

Class E power amplifier circuit and associated transmitter circuits Download PDF

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US7321263B2
US7321263B2 US11/065,640 US6564005A US7321263B2 US 7321263 B2 US7321263 B2 US 7321263B2 US 6564005 A US6564005 A US 6564005A US 7321263 B2 US7321263 B2 US 7321263B2
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circuit
active device
class
power amplifier
signal
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US20050218977A1 (en
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Thorsten Brabetz
Vincent Francis Fusco
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Queens University of Belfast
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
    • H03F—AMPLIFIERS
    • H03F3/00—Amplifiers with only discharge tubes or only semiconductor devices as amplifying elements
    • H03F3/20—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers
    • H03F3/21—Power amplifiers, e.g. Class B amplifiers, Class C amplifiers with semiconductor devices only
    • H03F3/217—Class D power amplifiers; Switching amplifiers
    • H03F3/2176—Class E amplifiers

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  • the present invention relates to an amplifier circuit and in particular, a class E power amplifier circuit and its associated transmitter circuits.
  • the power consumption of the oscillator and filter components of a transceiver circuit is negligible compared with that of the circuit's RF power amplifier. Consequently, the growing demands of the mobile telecommunications industry have focussed attention on the design and in particular the power efficiency of RF power amplifiers.
  • the efficiency of a power amplifier can be increased by minimising its power dissipation whilst ensuring that the output power is maintained at the desired level.
  • the instantaneous power consumed by an active device is defined as the product of the drain-to-source voltage and drain-to-source current at any given point in time.
  • Switching power amplifiers increase their efficiency by ensuring that a non-zero voltage does not exist across the amplifier at the same time that a non-zero current is flowing through the amplifier. In other words, switching power amplifiers ensure that either the voltage across the amplifier and/or the current flowing through the amplifier is zero at any given point in a RF cycle.
  • the product of the voltage and the current is zero at all times and in an ideal case no power is consumed by the device (i.e. all the DC input power to the power amplifier is converted to RF power and the DC-to-RF frequency of the amplifier is 100%).
  • This functionality is essentially achieved through a switching operation that is inherently non-linear in character.
  • the class E power amplifier is a well-known switching power amplifier.
  • FIG. 1 is an equivalent circuit diagram for a conventional class E power amplifier.
  • the circuit comprises an active device (e.g. a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), junction field-effect transistor (JFET), metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) or metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET)), a RF choke 1 and surrounding passive elements that form a load network.
  • an active device e.g. a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), junction field-effect transistor (JFET), metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET) or metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET)
  • BJT bipolar junction transistor
  • HBT heterojunction bipolar transistor
  • JFET junction field-effect transistor
  • MOSFET metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor
  • MESFET metal semiconductor field effect transistor
  • the active device in a class E power amplifier operates as a switch having two discrete states, namely ON and OFF.
  • the active device in FIG. 1 is represented by a switch 2 .
  • the opening and closing of the switch 2 is controlled by a RF input signal (not shown).
  • the switch 2 During the ON state the switch 2 is closed and acts as a low resistance element which permits current to flow through it. During the OFF state the switch 2 is open and thus acts as a high impedance element capable of withstanding a voltage rise across its terminals.
  • the operation of the switch 2 stimulates oscillation in a moderate-Q series resonant circuit 3 (comprising an inductor L s and a capacitor C s ) which is tuned to the fundamental frequency of the switching waveform.
  • the oscillation of the resonant circuit 3 forces a sinusoidal current through a load resistor R L , which results in a sinusoidal output signal i ⁇ .
  • the flow of a constant current throughout an entire RF cycle is ensured by applying a sufficiently large DC bias signal (v DC ) to the active device through the RF choke 1 .
  • the RF choke 1 typically has a very large inductance and thus only allows a DC current to pass through it.
  • a shunt capacitor C p is connected in parallel with the active device (switch 2 ).
  • the task of the shunt capacitor C p is to act as a temporary energy store while the switch 2 is open thereby allowing the resonant circuit 3 to carry on oscillating even when the switch 2 is closed (i.e. all the current is flowing through the switch 2 ).
  • the DC current v DC and the output current i ⁇ flows through the shunt capacitor C p (i.e. forming current i c ). This current charges the shunt capacitor C p , resulting in a non-zero voltage v c (not shown).
  • the current into the shunt capacitor (i c ) becomes negative and discharges the shunt capacitor C p . If the switch timing and the capacitance of the shunt capacitor C p are chosen correctly the shunt capacitor C p is fully discharged (i.e. there is no voltage across the output terminals of the active device) by the time the switch 2 opens.
  • the voltage across the switch 2 is zero (in the ideal case) and the current flows entirely through the switch 2 (i.e. thereby forming i sw ).
  • the amplifier circuit consumes no energy and is ideally 100% DC-to-RF efficient.
  • the switch timing is set via the gate bias and the voltage over the shunt capacitor Cp can be determined through the following equation.
  • Class E power amplifiers have mainly been used to date to amplify lower frequency VHF signals where the parasitic resistance of the active device is not as problematic.
  • Class E amplifiers are inherently sensitive to these parasitic resistances because the currents flowing through the active device are relatively high. Consequently, even small parasitic resistances cause a significant voltage drop across the active device that interferes with the operation of the circuit during switching. This effect is particularly pronounced when operating at high frequencies.
  • HBTs heterojunction bipolar transistors
  • pHEMT pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor
  • PSK Phase-shift keying
  • BPSK biphase modulation
  • QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
  • CDMA code division multiple access
  • DVD-S wireless local loop and digital video broadcasting-satellite
  • QAM is a modulation scheme that combines amplitude modulation and phase shift keying to transmit several data bits per symbol and is primarily used in microwave digital radio, digital video broadcasting-cable (DVB-C) and modems.
  • 8QAM eight state quadrature amplitude modulation
  • 8QAM eight state quadrature amplitude modulation signals typically have four phase states and two amplitude states (i.e. two concentric rings on a constellation plot, each ring corresponding with a particular amplitude state and comprising four points corresponding with the phase states).
  • the informational content of a QAM signal is contained in the amplitude of the signal. Consequently, if it is necessary to amplify a QAM signal, the amplification should be performed with a linear amplifier in order to preserve the informational content of the signal. Similarly, it should not be theoretically possible to preserve the informational content of a QAM signal if it is subjected to non-linear amplification. For example, if a non-linear amplifier is used to amplify an 8QAM signal, the resulting signal should in theory possess four states because the outer concentric ring from the constellation plot of the original signal would have collapsed onto the inner concentric ring. In view of the above, a class E power amplifier would not normally be considered for the amplification of QAM signals.
  • Linear power amplifiers are typically less efficient than switching power amplifiers since current flows through the active device at the same time as there is a voltage across the device for at least a portion of a RF cycle. Since both QAM and QPSK signals generally require linear amplification, the transceiver circuits used for transmitting and receiving such signals are characterised by high power consumption.
  • a class E power amplifier circuit comprising an active device, a DC blocking element and an oscillating element, wherein the oscillating element is driven by a voltage signal.
  • the oscillating element is a LC resonant circuit connected in parallel with the active device and in series with the DC blocking element.
  • the class E power amplifier circuit comprises a load resistor connected in parallel to the oscillating element.
  • the oscillating element forces a sinusoidal voltage over the load resistor and the active device.
  • the class E power amplifier circuit comprises a first inductor connected in series with the active device.
  • the first inductor is connected in series with the DC blocking element.
  • the DC blocking element comprises a RF choke and a first capacitor.
  • the active device is switched from an ‘ON’ state in which the active device operates as a closed switch to an ‘OFF’ state in which the active device operates as an open switch wherein the switching operation is controlled by a RF signal.
  • the switching activity of the active device stimulates a sinusoidal voltage in the oscillating element.
  • the active device when the active device is in its ‘ON’ state, a current flows through the switch and the sinusoidal voltage developed in the oscillating element is dropped across the load resistor.
  • a signal transmission circuit comprising a class E power amplifier, which in turn comprises an active device, a DC blocking element and an oscillating element, wherein the oscillating element is driven by a voltage signal.
  • a phase modulated signal transmission circuit comprising a class E power amplifier, which in turn comprises an active device, a DC blocking element and an oscillating element, wherein the oscillating element is driven by a voltage signal.
  • a phase shift keying signal transmission circuit comprising a phase shift keying modulator and a class E power amplifier comprising an active device, a DC blocking element and an oscillating element, wherein the oscillating element is driven by a voltage signal.
  • the phase shift keying signal transmission circuit incorporates an analogue signal source connectable to a class E power amplifier bias voltage control means so that the analogue signal source modulates the output from the phase shift keying modulator.
  • an amplitude modulated signal transmission circuit comprising an amplitude modulator and a class E power amplifier comprising an active device, a DC blocking element and an oscillating element, wherein the oscillating element is driven by a voltage signal.
  • the amplitude modulated signal transmission circuit comprises an input signal splitting means and a voltage control means wherein the input signal splitting means splits a digital input signal into a series of multiple bit words, wherein at least one bit of a resulting word is transmitted to the voltage control means to control the bias voltage of the class E power amplifier and wherein the remaining bits of the resulting word are transmitted to the amplitude modulator for amplification by the class E power amplifier.
  • the amplitude modulated signal transmission circuit is a quadrature amplitude modulated signal transmission circuit.
  • the class E power amplifier circuit in accordance with the first aspect of the invention will henceforth be known as the improved class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit Being voltage-based, the improved class E power amplifier circuit is much less sensitive to parasitic channel resistances than conventional current-based class E power amplifier circuits.
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit can in addition use short or moderate gate-width pHEMT devices (i.e. those compliant with commercial microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) foundry processes).
  • MMIC commercial microwave monolithic integrated circuit
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit does not require the matching of the switching timing of the active device to the discharge time of a shunt capacitor, the design constraints on the improved class E power amplifier circuit are not as demanding as those of the traditional class E power amplifier circuit.
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • circuit topologies are comparatively simple and contain a small number of components. Consequently, these circuits can be readily produced as integrated circuits, making them ideal for mass production or system-on-a-chip (SoC) applications. Since the circuit topologies are based on class E amplifiers, they promise to be highly efficient and could thus be powered by a battery or an array of solar cells.
  • the PSK transmitter circuit topology also provides the facility whereby a pilot signal at a much lower frequency than the carrier frequency can be added to the PSK signal by means of the DC bias voltage control. This would enable additional modulation to be added to the PSK signal in order to transmit additional information, for example authentication codes, base-station handover signals at mobile wireless cell boundaries, sensor readings, synchronisation purposes.
  • FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit diagram for an improved class E power amplifier in accordance with the first embodiment of the invention
  • FIG. 3 contains graphs of the simulated voltage and current waveforms of a traditional class E power amplifier with (A) an ideal switch (B) and a lossy switch and the (C) simulated voltage and current waveforms of the improved class E power amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 , with a lossy switch;
  • FIG. 4 contains graphs of the voltage and current waveforms of the improved class E power amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 , simulated for an ED02AH MMIC;
  • FIG. 5 is a graph of gain, efficiency and power added efficiency (PAE) against the input power to the hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 ;
  • PAE gain, efficiency and power added efficiency
  • FIG. 6 is a graph of gain, efficiency and PAE against the frequency of the input signal to the hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E power amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 ;
  • FIG. 7 is a constellation plot of a 12 bit GMSK signal amplified by the improved class E power amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 ;
  • FIG. 8 is a graph of output power, efficiency and PAE against the bias voltage to the hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E power amplifier in accordance with FIG. 2 ;
  • FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram for a phase shift keying (PSK) transmitter in accordance with the third embodiment of the invention.
  • PSK phase shift keying
  • FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram for a N-state quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) transmitter in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention.
  • QAM quadrature amplitude modulation
  • FIG. 11 is a constellation plot for a prototype 8QAM transmitter circuit in accordance with FIG. 10 .
  • the improved Class E power amplifier overcomes this problem by employing a voltage signal to drive the amplifier circuit.
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit comprises an active device which is represented as a switch 4 .
  • a switch 4 an active device which is represented as a switch 4 .
  • the shunt capacitor C p in FIG. 1 has been replaced by a series inductor L p .
  • the series inductor L p acts as an energy store (while the switch 4 is closed) in an analogous fashion to the shunt capacitor C p in the traditional class E power amplifier circuit ( FIG. 1 ).
  • the series resonant circuit 3 (in FIG. 1 ) has been replaced with a parallel resonant circuit 5 (comprising an inductor L s and a capacitor C s ).
  • a parallel resonant circuit 5 (comprising an inductor L s and a capacitor C s ).
  • the series resonant circuit 3 ( FIG. 1 ) of the conventional class E power amplifier forces a sinusoidal current through the load resistor R L
  • the parallel resonant circuit 5 of the improved class E amplifier circuit forces a sinusoidal voltage over the load resistance R L and the switch 4 .
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit also includes a DC blocking capacitor C B connected in series with series inductor L p .
  • the DC blocking capacitor C B prevents a DC bias voltage from being shorted by L p and entering the load resistor R L .
  • the capacitance of the blocking capacitor C B must be sufficiently large to enable RF signals to propagate through it by electromagnetic effects. Under these conditions the blocking capacitor C B acts (in a first approximation) as a short circuit for RF signals and therefore has no impact on the circuit's RF performance.
  • the active device in the improved class E power amplifier circuit operates (and is represented in FIG. 2 ) as a switch, having two discrete states, namely ON (switch is closed) and OFF (switch is open).
  • the improved class E power amplifier circuit is designed to ensure that at no point is there a current flowing through the active device at the same time that a voltage is dropped across the device. Consequently, the improved class E power amplifier should theoretically retain the power efficiency characteristics of the traditional class E power amplifier.
  • the performance characteristics of the circuit were analysed by simulating the circuit with Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS) transient analysis software.
  • ADS Advanced Design System
  • the circuit was first simulated with the assumption that the active device behaved like an ideal switch with an adjustable series resistance.
  • the circuit was then simulated with the assumption that the active device behaved as a lossy switch.
  • FIG. 3 compares the waveforms of the improved class E power amplifier circuit with those of a traditional class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the graphs in Column A i.e. left-most column
  • the graphs in Column A show from top to bottom (i) the switch current i sw ; (ii) the shunt capacitor current i C ; and (iii) the voltage across the shunt capacitor V C for the ideally-behaving traditional class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the graphs in Column B show (i) the switch current i sw ; (ii) the shunt capacitor current i c ; and (iii) the voltage across the shunt capacitor for the traditional class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the active device is represented as a switch with a resistance of 5 ⁇ in the closed state.
  • This resistance represents the typical parasitic resistance experienced by a medium size pHEMT device.
  • the drain-to-source resistance can be as high as 20 ⁇ (R. E. Anholt, Electrical and thermal characterization of MESFETs, HEMTs, and HBTs . Norwood, Mass., USA: Artech House Inc., 1995).
  • the graphs in Column C show from top to bottom (i) the inductor voltage v L ; (ii) the switch voltage v sw ; and (iii) the inductor current i sw of the improved class E power amplifier circuit. These graphs were obtained from the simulations of the improved class E power amplifier circuit under the assumption that the circuit's active device was a switch with a 5 ⁇ internal resistance. Comparing the graphs in Column C with those in Columns A and B it can be seen that whilst the waveforms of the improved class E power amplifier have a different timing than those of the traditional class E power amplifiers, nonetheless v sw and i sw are zero at the switching point ⁇ .
  • the switch representing the active device was replaced with a model of a 6 ⁇ 50 ⁇ m ED02AH GaAs pHEMT supplied by OMMIC (OMMIC, ED 02 AH Library Agilent - ADS Simulator , July 2002. Release V2.6.) and all the circuit connections and lumped components were replaced with their respective MMIC counterparts.
  • OMMIC OMMIC, ED 02 AH Library Agilent - ADS Simulator , July 2002. Release V2.6.
  • a hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class-E power amplifier circuit was designed on a Taconics TLY-5-0100-CH soft-board mounted on a brass carrier using conductive epoxy to provide mechanical stability. Standard surface-mount components were used for the passive network components of the circuit and a discrete OMMIC ED02AH 6 ⁇ 50 ⁇ m pHEMT was used for the active device.
  • the active device was mounted with conductive epoxy onto a brass pedestal to bring its surface level with the TLY-5 substrate, and electrical connections were established using 25 ⁇ m gold wire-bonding.
  • SMA connectors were soldered directly onto the TLY-5 microstrip lines, and gate bias was supplied using a bias tee through the RF in port.
  • the initial hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E amplifier circuit was built without gate or drain matching circuits since it was expected that a mismatch would have little impact on signal quality. Furthermore, the signal losses resulting from reflected signal power were also accepted.
  • the input signal to the hybrid MIC improved class E power amplifier circuit was generated by an Agilent HP 8657 B signal generator producing 10 dBm at 870 MHz.
  • the active device gate bias was added to the circuit using a bias tee, and fed to the RF in port of the class E amplifier and the drain bias was directly supplied to the v cc port of the amplifier.
  • Table 1 below lists the relevant component values for the hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the improved class E power amplifier exhibited a maximum gain of 18 dB, a maximum efficiency of 88%, and a maximum power added efficiency (PAE) of 79%. Accounting for the power lost due to input mismatch, it is estimated that the PAE value could be as high as 87% if the circuit were properly matched.
  • the power amplifier At its nominal operating frequency of 870 MHz, the power amplifier exhibited 8.3 dB gain at a maximum output power of 17.3 dBm (53.7 mW), 88% efficiency and 79% maximum power added efficiency.
  • the output-return loss was 7.5 dB, and the input-return loss just 0.05 dB.
  • FIG. 6 is a graph of gain, efficiency and PAE against the frequency of the input signal to the hybrid MIC implementation of the improved class E power amplifier circuit.
  • the hybrid-MIC implementation of the improved class E power amplifier circuit easily maintains an efficiency of more than 70%, a power added efficiency of more than 50%, and a gain of more than 7 dB over more than 20% bandwidth.
  • an Anritsu MG 3660 A modulation generator was used to create a 270 kbps Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) signal with a carrier frequency of 870 MHz.
  • GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying
  • the resulting 12 bit GMSK signal was then fed through the hybrid MIC improved class E amplifier circuit and the amplifier's output was monitored on an Anritsu MT 8801 B modulation analyser.
  • FIG. 7 is the constellation plot of the 12 bit GMSK signal after being amplified by the improved class E amplifier.
  • the RMS phase error ( ⁇ 0.5°) and the peak phase error ( ⁇ 1°) measured in this study were below the tolerances (i.e. measurement resolution) of the MT 8801 B for these measurements (i.e. RMS tolerance ⁇ 2°, peak phase tolerance ⁇ 4°). From this it can be concluded that the improved class E power amplifier preserves the phase relationships of an input signal and could potentially be used in a phase modulation transmission circuit.
  • FIG. 8 is a graph of output power, efficiency and PAE against the bias voltage to the hybrid MIC improved class E power amplifier. From FIG. 8 it can be seen that by increasing the bias voltage from 1V to 5V, the output power of the hybrid MIC improved class E power amplifier circuit can be varied over a range of 13.8 dB.
  • FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram for the novel transmitter topology for a PSK modulated signal with an added amplitude modulated pilot signal, wherein the transmitter circuit is based on the improved Class E power amplifier.
  • a high-speed data stream 6 is fed to a conventional IQ modulator 8 , which sets the correct phase-state.
  • the resulting PSK signal 10 is then amplified in the class E power amplifier 12 , and transmitted.
  • an analogue low-speed pilot signal 14 can be fed to a DC bias voltage control circuit 16 , amplitude modulating the PSK signal at a much lower bit rate.
  • This additional low-speed signal could carry system-relevant information, e.g. authentication codes, base-station handover signals at cell boundaries, sensor readings, synchronisation signals, etc.
  • the QAM transmitter circuit employing the improved class E power amplifier is not restricted to an 8QAM signal. Whilst the present example applies only two bias levels to the active device, a QAM transmitter circuit based on the improved class E power amplifier could be developed for any level of QAM by applying more DC bias levels to the active device.
  • a prototype transmitter circuit for an 8QAM signal was designed using the previously described hybrid MIC class E amplifier.
  • the prototype circuit was tested using an Anritsu MG 3660 A modulation generator to produce a 270 kbps PSK signal with a carrier frequency of 890 MHz, and an Anritsu MT 8801 B modulation analyser to receive the amplified signal.
  • the DC power supply for the class E amplifier was switched at 9 kHz, amplitude modulating the PSK signal.
  • the bias voltage switching signal and the PSK signal were not in any form synchronised to each other.
  • the switchable DC bias control for the class E amplifier was achieved by feeding a DC signal to one input port of a summing amplifier using two TL081 operational amplifiers (SGS-Thompson Microelectronics, “TL081, TL081A-TL081B.” Datasheet, April Australia 1995) and feeding the logic signal to the other input port.
  • TL081 operational amplifiers SGS-Thompson Microelectronics, “TL081, TL081A-TL081B.” Datasheet, April Australia 1995
  • the output of the summing amplifier was then connected to the drain of the active device via the RF choke of the class E amplifier.
  • the DC bias voltage could be switched between two different non-zero DC values to vary the gain of the class E amplifier between two arbitrary values.
  • FIG. 11 shows the test results for the prototype circuit. From the constellation plot, it can be seen that the amplitude of the 8QAM signal varies with the DC bias. Whilst the measured phase error increased to 1.4° rms, and 3.6° peak it is believed that the additional phase noise comes from the DC bias switching. However, it is envisaged that the phase noise could be reduced by optimising the circuit design.

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